Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 116, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1904 — The Man Who Knew. [ARTICLE]

The Man Who Knew.

Many stories are told of judicial ignorance, but here is a good one of a chief justice who did not affect ignorance upon the bench, and who in consequence succeeded in clearing up a scandal which was beating counsel and witnesses. Str John Jervis had before him a young man who had been mercilessly pillaged by a gang of scoundrels. Jervis tore aside the network of sophistries woven round the case by counsel for the blacklegs, and skilfully elucidated the cryptogram employed to keep a record in their note-books showing transactions with the “pigeon.” Then a pack of cards was put in, for whose fairness the detective vouched. Jervis took them and in his summing up said, “Gentlemen, I will engage to to tell you without looking at the faces the name of every card In this pack.” He was as good as his word. The backs of the cards were figured with wreaths and flowers, with dots and lines all over. In the right-band corner of each was a small flower. The kings had so many dots each, the knaves so many, the ace and queen their due number. So that you had but to look at the back to see as plainly what he had as if the cards were laid face uppermost upon the table.